Tony Harnell
| genre = Hard rock, Acoustic, Heavy metal | years_active = 1980–present | associated_acts = TNT, Westworld, Starbreaker, Skid Row | website = http://www.tonyharnell.com }}Antony "Tony" Harnell (born September 18, 1962,http://www.last.fm/music/Tony+Harnell in San Diego, California, United States) is an American rock singer, best known for his work with the Norwegian hard rock band TNT. He is also known for his exceptionally wide vocal range, with his chest-voice spanning over 4 octaves. In 2015 he was briefly the frontman for heavy metal band Skid Row. Biography Harnell was born in San Diego in 1962. He has an older half sister by his father. His mother, Constance Haldaman, was an opera singer while his father, Boyd Harnell, was a photojournalist. As a teenager, Harnell was a professional skateboarder and avid surfer. Early years Harnell started singing at the age of 5. At 17 he joined his first band and spent the next three years in approximately fifteen bands including Bronx-based Jackals, a band of cultivated talent emerging from the guitarist's home basement that in a scant two years, gained enough popularity in the NYC area to fill rock clubs to capacity simply by word of mouth alone. This was the band in which Harnell was discovered. At 18, Harnell started studying with vocal teacher Don Lawrence. TNT After a show in 1984, Harnell was introduced to record producer Mike Varney who mentioned a band in Norway, TNT, that was looking for a singer. Harnell was hired shortly after the band heard a demo tape of his vocals. Harnell and guitarist Ronni Le Tekrø co-wrote all of TNT's material together during Harnell's 22-year run with the band. With Harnell, TNT recorded nine studio albums, two live videos and two "best of" compilations. He left the band in April 2006 for personal and professional reasons. He performed his last show with the band on June 30, 2006 and a DVD was released that autumn that features the penultimate show in Madrid, Spain on April 1. On October 17, 2013, Harnell announced that he had rejoined TNT. After a year and a half absence, during which time,he fronted Skid Row, Harnell announced another return to TNT in May 2016. Harnell would leave the band once again in October 2017 and was replaced by previous unknown Baol Bardot Bulsara. Morning Wood Morning Wood is an acoustic rock supergroup composed of Harnell, Al Pitrelli, Chuck Bonfonte, and Danny Mirada. The act's album was first released in Japan in 1994 during TNT's first break-up and in 2002 was re-released in Europe credited to "Tony Harnell and Morning Wood." Westworld Westworld is a side project of Harnell's that also featured Mark Reale, Bruno Ravel, and John O'Reilly, with keyboardist Josh Pincus and violinist Mark Wood. Westworld has released three studio albums and a live album. Starbreaker Starbreaker is another band featuring Harnell and Magnus Karlsson. Some former members include John Macaluso, and Fabrizio Grossi. It released its first album in 2005. A second Starbreaker album, Love's Dying Wish, was released in 2008. The band never toured. A third Starbreaker album, Dysphoria, featuring Harnell and Karlsson among others, is scheduled for release in January 2019. Sonic the Hedgehog Harnell has done tracks for the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. His first track for the series was "It Doesn't Matter" on the soundtrack of Sonic Adventure released in 1998 by SEGA. Harnell returned in 2001 to perform a rewritten version of the theme for Sonic in Sonic Adventure 2, as well as the first stage theme "Escape from the City" with Ted Poley. Following this in 2004, Harnell performed the Team Sonic theme for Sonic Heroes called "We Can", again with Poley and in 2011 he returned for Sonic Generations to perform two new remixes of "Escape from the City" with Poley. Solo career In 2008, Harnell released his first solo material in demo form, the EP Cinematic, through his website. It was followed in 2010 by the Round Trip album under the name Tony Harnell & The Mercury Train, a collection of re-recordings of classic Harnell songs from his previous bands TNT and Westworld in a stripped-down acoustic format. Harnell released the digital single "Take What You're Giving" in 2011 before teaming up with guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal and others for the Tony Harnell & the Wildflowers featuring Bumblefoot album in 2013. Skid Row On April 6, 2015, it was announced that Johnny Solinger had left the American heavy metal band Skid Row. Hours later, the band announced that Harnell would be Solinger's replacement. On December 29, he announced that he had left Skid Row. Discography Solo * Tony Harnell & Morning Wood - Morning Wood (1994) * Cinematic - self-released (2008) * Tony Harnell & The Mercury Train Round Trip (2010) * Take What You're Giving - self-released (2011) * Tony Harnell & the Wildflowers featuring Bumblefoot - Tony Harnell & the Wildflowers featuring Bumblefoot (2013) TNT * Knights of the New Thunder (Eur, Jap 1984), (U.S. 1985) * Tell No Tales (1987) * Intuition (1989) * Forever Shine On (1989) * Realized Fantasies (1992) * Three Nights in Tokyo (Live) (1992) * Till Next Time – The Best of TNT (1995) * Firefly (1997) * Transistor (1999) * The Big Bang – The Essential Collection (2003) * Give Me A Sign (2003) * My Religion (2004) * All the Way to the Sun (2005) * Live in Madrid (2006) Westworld * Westworld (1999) * Skin (2000) * Cyberdreams (2002) * Live... In the Flesh (2001) Starbreaker * Starbreaker (2005) * Love's Dying Wish (2008) * Dysphoria (2019) As featured artist * Brazen Abbot – My Resurrection (2005) * Magnus Karlsson's Free Fall – Free Fall (2013) * Michael Sweet - I'm Not Your Suicide (2014) * Magnus Karlsson's Free Fall – Kingdom of Rock (2015) Skid Row * '' 18 and Life'' (2015) - single References External links * http://www.tonyharnell.com/ Category:1962 births Category:American heavy metal singers Category:American male singers Category:Singers with a four-octave vocal range Category:Living people Category:TNT (Norwegian band) members Category:Musicians from San Diego Category:Skid Row (American band) members Category:Starbreaker (band) members